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Wii
, , & }} The Wii is a seventh generation video game console created by Nintendo, and a successor to Nintendo's previous console, the GameCube. It is Nintendo's fifth major home console. The console was initially released on November 19, 2006 in North America,and was released shortly thereafter in other countries, and became the leading console in the U.S.A., Europe and Japan. With over 90 million units shipped worldwide, it is Nintendo's best-selling home console, and 3rd best-selling home console of all time. The Wii was also later remade into the smaller Wii Mini. The console comes packaged with a Wii Remote and Nunchuk, the most prominent being the former. The Wii Remote is capable of detecing movement in three dimensions and can be held with one hand. The Nunchuk can be connected to the Wii Remote via a long cord allowing for more control. Motions made with the Nunchuk can also be registered through the Wii Remote. Building off the basis of the Nintendo DS, Nintendo is using what they refer to as the "blue ocean" strategy. It is a move to target not only the general gaming public, but also those who have never played games, or those who play very rarely. It has been designed with simplicity and familiarity in mind, which explains the Wii Remote and the Wii Channels. The system is actually incredibly compact, lending itself to extreme portability. It is approximately the size of three Wii cases stacked on top of one another. It comes with a stand as well, so it can sit upright when in the vertical position. To insert a game, there is a large slot on the front of the system surrounded by a glowing blue neon light. The slot can accept the 8 cm discs used by the Nintendo GameCube and Wii games on standard 12 cm discs. The system also comes with a sensor bar that emits IR signals picked up by the Wii Remote. The Wii is the first console by Nintendo that has the ability to update its system software. It is also the first console since the SNES (Super Mario World) to be bundled with a game at launch, which is Wii Sports. People in Japan, however, must purchase the game separately. Development Beginnings Development of the Wii began right after the GameCube was launched. When developing the Wii, the creators asked themselves what kind of an impact flashier graphics and faster speed would make. The Name Nintendo revealed the final name of the console right before that year's E3. Prior to this, the console was simply known as the Nintendo Revolution. Nintendo stated in the beginning that the name was simply Wii, rather than the Nintendo Wii. The prefix "RVL" is used on the Wii and its peripherals. The plural form of Wii is, according to Nintendo, not "Wiis" as some tend to believe, but rather should be "Wii consoles" or "systems". The two lowercased "i"'s in the name are supposed to represent two players enjoying the game together, or the Wii's unique controller. Following the game's announcement, both developers and fans alike expressed their dislike towards the name, with both groups explaining how they felt the name displayed a sort of "kidiness" to it, and how they preferred the Revolution. Reggie Fils-Aime explained that the name Revolution was long and was hard to pronounce in some languages, while Wii would be pronounced the same in every country. However, he did acknowledge the negativity the new name aroused, by a line in an E3 press conference; "First up, the name. We want to thank every one of you who said good things about it day one. Both of you." Games The Nintendo Wii was released with three launch titles; Wii Sports, Exite Truck and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Other games conceptualized or released around the system's launch were Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and Sonic and the Secret Rings. As of March 31, 2014, there have been 895.22 million units of software sold. Accessory Symbols Unlike other consoles, Wii game notably included symbols on the back of their box art that showed their functionality with accessories. Hardware When compared to Nintendo's other consoles, the Wii is the smallest of them all (measurements: 44 mm (1.73 in) wide, 157 mm (6.18 in) tall), and certainly the smallest of the three seventh generation consoles (and lightest at 2.7 Ibs, 1.2 kg). It is even smaller than the Xbox 360/PS3 Slim. Similar to the two other consoles, the Wii can be placed on its side or vertically. Unlike the other two consoles, if placed vertically, then Nintendo suggests you use the gray colored stand that comes packaged with the Wii. The disc loading drive on the front of the console has a neon blue light surrounding it, which is turned on to indicate that WiiConnect24 is in use or when a disc is either inserted or ejected (only if you've updated your firmware to version 3.0). It was thought early on that the light would remain on at all times, though this proved to be false upon the release of the console. The drive itself will take discs made specifically for it and, through backward compatibility, GameCube discs. Next to the drive is an SD card slot which is covered. Above it are the power and reset buttons, while at the bottom (next to the Wii logo) is the eject button, which will cause the game within (if there is a game within) to be ejected from the console. During gameplay you should not eject the disc, though on the Wii Menu you are free to do so. The Wii sensor bar, which comes included with the console, must be placed above or below the television you're playing on. If you change the placement of the sensor bar, it is required that you record where the sensor bar is placed for maximum performance. The AV cable and power adapter also come included with the console. Wii Remote The controller is truly what makes the system shine. Using integrated apparatuses (such as accelerometers and gyroscopes), the Wii Remote is able to sense movement in 3-D space. Using this, the Wii can simulate things such as having a sword fight, playing almost any sports game, solving puzzles, and much more. It closely resembles a television remote, designed this way on purpose in order to make it easy to relate to the familiarity of the TV remote. Its emphasis on motion sensing capabilities also help to make games less difficult and more natural, as to appeal to all groups of people. It also has various attachments which are plugged into the expansion port at the bottom of the controller. One such attachment, referred to as the Nunchuk, adds two more buttons, an analog stick, and has its own built in accelerometer. The expansion port can also allow other attachments such as the Classic Controller. The controller was formerly referred to as the Revmote by the gaming community. As the real name of the console was revealed, nowadays the controller is known as the "Wiimote", though the correct name according to Nintendo is simply "Wii Remote". All new Wii remotes come with a built in Wii MotionPlus. Games such as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword need the accessory to be played. The Motion Plus was first introduced and is bundled with Wii Sports Resort. Features Wii Menu and Channels The Wii Menu is automatically launched when the player turns the Wii console on. The player will notice rectangles on the screen, each one containing a different application. The placement of the applications (channels) can be altered by pressing the A and B button at the same time while holding a cursor over one, then swapping it with another. You can not change the placement of the Disc Channel without modifications. There are various different games that the player can download through the Shop Channel, though several are already pre-loaded such as the Disc Channel, and the Mii Channel. Some channels can only be obtained by purchasing retail games such as Wii Fit or accessories such as Wii Speak, while other channels are available exclusively to certain countries. Through the Nintendo Channel, players can watch trailers of Nintendo and third party video games, download Nintendo DS demos, give surveys for games they've purchased, and watch developer videos for recently released titles. The videos that are available are different for each country. On the Message Board, which isn't technically a channel, players can post messages, send messages, receive messages from others, receive messages from Nintendo or receive messages from a video game they're playing. For example, Nintendo may send you a message regarding a firmware update, or Bonsai Barber for WiiWare may send you a message, telling you that you've missed a scheduled appointment with one of the in game characters. The Message Board also records the player's playing history (except for GameCube games). Virtual Console A built in feature of the Wii is the Wii Virtual Console. Games are available to be downloaded (for a price) from previous systems including the TurboGrafx-16, Sega Genesis, NES, SNES, and N64. The Wii Remote is designed so, when turned sideways, closely resembles an NES controller, most likely designed with the NES in mind. Most Virtual Console games cost between 500 to 1000 Wii Points ($5 to $10 USD). The Classic Controller, a controller similar to the SNES controller, has been designed to cover all the Virtual Console systems. The Classic Controller Pro has a sleeker design, and is similar to the DualShock 2 (the PS2 controller). *List of Virtual Console titles (North America) *List of Virtual Console titles (Europe) *List of Virtual Console titles (Japan) WiiWare WiiWare is a service similar to the Virtual Console that allows users to download games made specifically for it, whereas the Virtual Console features previously made video games. WiiWare games, unlike Virtual Console titles, usually make use of the Wii's unique features and have more impressive graphics, though they usually take up more space. Both WiiWare and Virtual Console games can be placed on SD Cards and can be played from them (they must be temporarily copied to the Wii before playing them). Backward Compatibility When it was launched, the Wii was fully compatible with every GameCube game, controller, and accessory (Such as the Microphone and the DK Bongos), the only exception being the GameBoy player accessory. It is possible to play any game from the GameCube library without issue, avoiding the compatibility issues that the competing Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 had. The GameCube discs are able to be placed into the Wii's disc slot and auto-adjust to the size of the GameCube disc. The Wii includes four controller ports and two memory slots to maintain complete compatibility with the GameCube. This feature makes the Wii the first Nintendo console to have backwards compatibility with a previous console. However in late 2011, a newly redesigned model of the Wii named the Wii Family Edition was released in Europe and North America that removed this backward compatibility, although the original model is still sold alongside the newer model. Model No MODEL NO. REV-001(USA) Accessories *Wii Jacket *Operation Manual *Wii Remote *Wii Wheel (if bundled with Mario Kart) *Sensor Bar *Instruction Booklet (if bundled with games) *Nunchuk *Classic Controller (sold separately) *Wii MotionPlus+ (may be sold separately) *Wii Power Supply *Wii Console stand Top Ten Best Selling Wii Games #''Wii Sports''- 82.54m #''Mario Kart Wii''- 35.53m #''Wii Sports Resort''-32.58m #''New Super Mario Bros. Wii ''-28.65m #''Wii Play ''-28.02m #''Wii Fit ''-22.67m #''Wii Fit Plus''-21.03m #''Super Mario Galaxy'' -12.22m #''Super Smash Bros. Brawl''- 12.14m #''Just Dance 3 '' Trivia *Even after the release of the Wii U, games were still made for the Wii. One example is Angry Birds Trilogy. See also *List of Wii games *List of Wii accessories *WiiConnect24 *Wii Trademarks *Wii Domain Names *Wii Channel Menu *News Portal *Wii's Gallery External links *Wii Official Website *Wii Wiki fr:Wii es::Wii pt:Wii sv:Wii Category:Wii Category:Nintendo consoles Category:Consoles Category:System articles Category:Nintendo